J. D. Salinger's The Catcher In The Rye

In J. D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye, the coming of age archetype is inevitable, as the protagonist matures greatly throughout his physical journey. Holden started off as as sad as night, with aimlessness, pain and depression. He did not pretend the process of mourning was simple, and blind his eyes to the difficulty of accepting the loss of his brother. However, the truth is divulged here, proving to mourn, as painful and mentally agonizing. He could not easily move on with his life, go to school and make friends, when Allie was gone, forever. Dark thoughts spiraled out of control in the protagonist’s mind, constantly disrupting his state of tranquility, giving way to his physical journey. Grieve caused this dispatched sense of

Holden 's life issue is his need to be, “The Catcher in the Rye”, his life lesson is how he overcomes it. At the end of the novel Holden comes to the understanding that everyone grows up. At the end of the book Holden accepts that he doesn 't need to be little kids protectors and that Phoebe wants to grow up and be an adult. Even though he didn 't grow to his full potential at the end of the novel his progression is made apparent by the quote “Don’t tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody” (Salinger 214). Although Holden is not fully recovered he is much less depressed than his earlier stages in the book. Holden has taken a step further in his adult life and rather than dismissing those around them he begins to value them, thus being a big step.

Holden is now lost in his own fantasy world not wanting to grow up from his childhood life, due to the tragedy of Allies death. Freud’s theory would examine the depth of the unconscious state and its primary root source attached to incomprehensible pain by noting, “the preconscious state holds information we’ve stored from past experience...This information can be retrieved from memory and brought into awareness at any time” (Freud 469). Because Holden never stops thinking of his brother he is trapped in his own world and can’t find an escape to his mood disorder of depression and his emotion of tribulant grief. However, Holden acknowledges that he is lost, “they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all…I don’t blame them” (Salinger 38). Moreover, Holden neglects to grow up. Salinger attributes Holden’s words by implying,‘Oh, I feel some concern for my future, all right. Sure. Sure, I do.’ I thought about it for a minute. ‘But not too much, I guess’ (14). Holden didn’t want to grow up from his childhood years or even think of the future. He wants to remain in his childhood years, when everything was full of life and vivid happiness. Holden’s actions are also childlike, which makes his character unreliable at times, but it irritates Holden when people don’t take him seriously or simply notice that when he tries to change his behavior. For instance, Salinger mentions, “I get bored sometimes when people tell me to act my age. Sometimes I act a lot older than I am-I really do-but people never notice it. People never notice anything” (9). Salinger adds how people ‘never notice anything’ to Holden’s feelings because Holden is a boy, whom his parents don’t take care of, which sparks Holden’s feelings of no one even caring and noticing him. As identified in the beginning of the Novel Stradlater opens Holden’s feelings with dialogue which reveals “my parents were occupied and all that crap…” (1). Holden’s family wasn’t really there for him, when he need their advice or

Holden struggles with growing up and facing reality. There are many examples of Holden’s immaturity that are displayed in many forms such as facing responsibilities, his speech, his actions, and etc. Holden’s outlook on adult life is that it is superficial and brimming with phonies, but childhood was all about looking pleasing and innocent. He wants everything to stay the same and for time to stop. As Holden progresses in age, he will discover more about becoming mature in the

Throughout the novel, The Catcher In The Rye, by J.D. Salinger, Holden struggles to find himself and who he truly is in order to be happy. His struggles relate to many things that he does or say in particular.

Salinger uses the symbol of Allie's mitt to express the theme of innocence as demonstrated in a major symbol, big factor in Catcher in The Rye, and overall connection to the theme of the book.

Today we are dealing with Holden Caulfield, a 17 year old student who attends Pencey Prep in New York City. Holden is maturing quickly and has happened to grow six and a half inches in the past year. He has grey hair at the age of seventeen and is very skinny for his age. Holden’s family consists of his mom and dad, his brother D.B, and his sister Phoebe. Holden did have another brother, Allie, but he passed away when Holden was thirteen years old. Holden does not communicate with D.B often but they keep in touch once in awhile. On the other hand, Holden cares for and loves Phoebe with his whole heart; he would never let anything happen to her and he continues to worry about her and care for her. Holden is very passionate about his family but

Adulthood is when we mature into a person that continues to live life in reality as we let our childhood and adolescence become a faint memory. The memories, however, taught us lessons of acceptance as we cannot always shape the future. Holden Caulfield in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye takes a journey through the rite of passage by experiencing the innocence of youth and the phoniness of adulthood.

This is an essay on whether or not Holden Caulfield is successful on his journey throughout the novel “The Catcher in the Rye” by Jerome David Salinger. This book shows how hard it can be for teenagers that are going from an adolescent to adulthood. Holden, who is sixteen years old, has been kicked out of several schools. Pencey Prep. was the latest. He faces many problems throughout the book, and is always trying to save kids innocence. Holden also wants to stay a kid and not grow up, however he finds out that he can’t do this by the end of the novel. Some people may think that Holden wasn't successful throughout his journey, however, one could also see how he was successful in his journey. By the end of the novel, Holden was able to find out that he couldn't save kids innocence, he couldn’t be a kid forever, and he sees that even though the world is filled with evil, he can accept it, or at least live with it.

The death of Holden 's younger brother Allie has caused him to confuse his perception of reality and to alienate himself. Throughout the novel, the topic of death is reoccurring in Holden 's mind. Whether he 's in school, doing homework, or aimlessly walking around New York City, Allie 's presence or lack thereof is always looming. It escalates to the point that Holden is always thinking about his own death, but more more specifically he 's fear of being forgotten: "Every time I came to the end of a block and stepped off the goddamn curb, I had this feeling that I 'd never get to the other side of the street. I thought I 'd just go down, down, down and nobody 'd ever see me again. Boy did it scare me"(256). Allies reoccurring presence in Holden 's life causes him to obsess about the unknown future. Since Allie was on of the only people holden was able to relate to, his death took a

At only age 16, Holden Caulfield struggles with basic day-to-day interactions and obstacles. When he comes across people, he is very selective over whom he lets in and how much he opens up. In “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger, Holden displays that he is a sensitive subject to work with on many different occasions. When dealing with family, it’s a touchy subject with which he does not like discussing a ton. When thinking about his siblings, Holden starts to reveal himself as a semi-sensitive guy. Regarding his friends, they are hit or miss with each one. Although he has been to many schools, he never seems to have friends that really stick with him. He has a few friends that throughout the novel he knows he can call up, but other than

There is one experience in life that everyone can relate to. Whether it was pleasurable or not, no one can deny the fact that they have not been through it. This experience is that of growing up and change, a time in all of our lives where it is such a complicated yet natural process that kids just ‘go with it’. In the novel, Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield suffers from the same complexity in his life. Holden is struck with events throughout the book questioning his maturity and emotions. He is unable to analyze what maturity really is because he does not want to grow up. The first stage of the motif Growing Up/Change is seen when Holden constantly thinks about his peers and siblings and how he would like to protect them. The final stage of this motif shows Holden wanting to protect kids from the vulgar world. However, he is struggling because he would prefer to stay innocent,

Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words in books can kill. The influence of literature is overlooked when it comes to violence. Movies and video games are usually blamed for this type of aggressiveness, but rarely does one point their finger towards a compilation of words on paper. It is forgotten that books hold an incredible power over the mind. Whether it is the power of imagination, the key to new thoughts and ideas, or the development of new emotions, reading can change a person. While literature doesn’t always transform a person radically, violent passages in books can lead to aggressive acts in real life. The type of violence found in books and committed by criminals can be defined as anything which causes harm, such as hostile

People go through rough stuff in their lives, such as losing a close sibling. It seems impossible to pull yourself out of the pain and guilt of your loss. It appeared Holden was in the same predicament, but through his experiences in the novel The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger he learns to grow up. Aside from being very immature, holden refuses to grow up and dislikes people who have grown up. Although Holden is immature at the start of the novel, he matures and learns to accept loss of innocence in others and himself.

Throughout the story Holden tries to suppress everything he feels which causes him to spiral out of control and do irrational things but starts to realise people need to grow up but kids also need to be kids.. When Holden 's brother, Allie, died he did this, “I was only thirteen, and they were going to have my psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage. I don 't blame them. I really don 't. I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it. I even tried to break all the windows on the station wagon we had that summer, but my hand was already broken and everything by that time, and I couldn 't do it. It was a very stupid thing to do, I 'll admit, but I hardly didn 't even know I was doing it, and you didn 't know Allie.” This shows, Holden expressed his emotions the same now as he did when he was 13 years old. This also demonstrates, that Holden even as a kid couldnt channel his grief into a healthy outlet and the only thing he could think of, like with stradlater, is violence. When Holden is imagining what he wants to be he says, “Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody 's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I 'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they 're running and they don 't look where they 're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That 's all I do all day. I 'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it 's crazy, but that 's the only thing I 'd really like to be.” This illustrates, Holden wants to be the person that saves everyone but he can 't even say himself and keep himself in control. This also demonstrates, Holden wants to stop other kids from growing up because he doesn 't want to grow up himself but he doesn 't